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PI Brief Update

Tripping Through a Straitened 2011 - Richard Tutt, Pump Court Chambers

22/02/12. Read on if you seek an overview of the law as it relates to tripping on public highways, seen through two appeals to the higher courts in 2011. First, the principal modern authority on tripping cases, Mills v Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council [1992] PIQR P 291. I will not rehearse sections 41, 58 and 329 of the Highways Act 1980 herein (ed. would have a fit), but have them to mind/hand.

On Wednesday 1 March 1989 Mrs Mills tripped and fell when walking along Market Street Barnsley. She was wearing relatively high-heeled shoes. The area consisted of paved slabs broken up with paving bricks. The corner of one of the paving bricks had broken away. The heel of Mrs Mills’ shoe became caught in the gap created (some 2“ at its widest point and some 3/4” deep). She fell, sustaining injury.

The Defendant Council was the highway authority. The highway was inspected once a month. Had the missing corner of the brick been noticed it would...

Image ©iStockphoto.com/markgoddard

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All information on this site was believed to be correct by the relevant authors at the time of writing. All content is for information purposes only and is not intended as legal advice. No liability is accepted by either the publisher or the author(s) for any errors or omissions (whether negligent or not) that it may contain. 

The opinions expressed in the articles are the authors' own, not those of Law Brief Publishing Ltd, and are not necessarily commensurate with general legal or medico-legal expert consensus of opinion and/or literature. Any medical content is not exhaustive but at a level for the non-medical reader to understand. 

Professional advice should always be obtained before applying any information to particular circumstances.

Excerpts from judgments and statutes are Crown copyright. Any Crown Copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of OPSI and the Queen’s Printer for Scotland under the Open Government Licence.